The Tree of Enlightenment

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
nalysis of onsciousness
B ecause of its importance and scope, I will dedicate three
chapters to the analysis of consciousness within Abhidharma
philosophy. In this chapter I look at some of the systems for classifying
consciousness and also at the sense-sphere consciousness
in particular.
To understand why we begin our Abhidharmic analysis
of experience with consciousness, it is important to remember
the therapeutic concern of Buddhist philosophy in general and
the Abhidharma in particular. e starting point of Buddhist
thought is the truth of suffering. Suffering is a problem of consciousness;
only that which is conscious can suffer. Consciousness
is subject to suffering because of ignorance, or fundamental notknowing,
which divides consciousness into subject and object,
into a self and an other-than-self (i.e., the objects and people
around the self).
In Buddhism, ignorance is defined as the notion of a permanent,
independent self and its object. Once we have this division
of consciousness into a self and an other-than-self, we have
suffering, because tension is created between the two. We also
have craving and aversion, because we want those things that
support the self and are averse to those things that are not conducive
to the self.
is division or discrimination between the self (or subject)
and the other-than-the-self (or object) is the fundamental cause
of suffering. Such a division is possible because of ignorance – the
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